Statistically Speaking

Do statistics really matter? What exactly are all those Google Analytics telling me?

When I first started selling on line in my Etsy shop, I checked my statistics fanatically! Several times a day! Before Google Analytics, I kept a spreadsheet to see what time of day people were looking at my shop. I tried to evaluate if views went up when I listed a new item for sale. They did. Then I tried to see if a certain time of day was better than another for generating views. After I signed on with Google Analytics, I checked daily to see what keywords were being searched on. I learned which items were the most viewed. I learned which blog post was the most popular. I learned a lot…

Not really.

I had a lot of statistics and information, but I never did figure out how to use any of these facts to help me sell anything. I can’t tell you if blogging, or tweeting, or Facebooking resulted in a single sale. This is frustrating to me because all this information should tell me something.

This June will be four years since I opened my Etsy shop. I don’t look at the statistics nearly as much as I used to. Now I mostly just look at two things.

1. How much am I selling?
2. Am I selling more this year than last year?

I figure that as long as the trend is up it’s still worth keeping my Etsy shop open.